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Highest Hand Bet

Introduction

The Highest Hand Bet is a side bet available in the Jackpot blackjack game by Dragonfish, a provider of software to Internet casinos. The player may play up to three hands. If he bets on at least two hands, then he can bet on which one will have the higher/highest total after two cards.

Rules

If the player has at least two hands, then he may make the highest hand bet on one specific hand.

For purposes of this side bet, all cards are scored as in blackjack. Aces shall be scored as 11 points, except two aces form a total of 12 points.

If the player has exactly two hands, then the Highest Hand bet will pay 2 to 1 if the chosen hand is a blackjack and 1 to 1 if it has the higher total of the two hands.

If the player has exactly three hands, then the highest hand bet will pay 7 to 2 if the chosen hand is a blackjack and 2 to 1 if it has the higher total of the three hands.

The Highest Hand bet will lose on any any tie other than a blackjack tie.

In the game I found by Dragonfish, four decks are used.

Analysis — Two Hands

The following table shows my analysis of Highest Hand bet, assuming two hands and four decks. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 1.73%.

Highest Hand — Two Hands

Event

Pays

Combinations

Probability

Return

Blackjack

2

86,487,040

0.047566

0.095132

Higher hand

1

763,631,616

0.419981

0.419981

Lose

-1

968,136,224

0.532454

-0.532454

Total

1,818,254,880

1.000000

-0.017341

The next pay table shows the house edge only for various numbers of decks.

House Edge Table — Two Hands

Decks

House Edge

1

1.36%

2

1.61%

3

1.69%

4

1.73%

5

1.76%

6

1.78%

7

1.79%

8

1.80%

Analysis — Three Hands

The following table shows my analysis of Highest Hand bet, assuming three hands and four decks. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 2.49%.

Highest Hand — Three Hands

Event

Pays

Combinations

Probability

Return

Blackjack

3.5

3,581,601,300,480

0.047566

0.166481

Higher hand

2

19,102,412,746,752

0.253692

0.507385

Lose

-1

52,613,557,043,328

0.698742

-0.698742

Total

75,297,571,090,560

1.000000

-0.024876

The next pay table shows the house edge only for various numbers of decks.